Heritage Fest: celebrating our progress through the arts. . .
SEPTEMBER is Heritage Month, a time to be mindful of the events that create our shared narrative. Some of these have been turned into national holidays, but there are many other historical moments worth looking at, to see how they influence who we are now, said Artscape Heritage Festival director, Mandla Mbothwe.
Now in its third year, the Heritage Festival is a time for Artscape to “excavate, restore and celebrate our heritage”.
“It is the perfect time to critically, sincerely and truthfully make an introspection of our national progress,” said Mbothwe.
Referring to both national and individual narratives, the Heritage Festival draws on various creative expressions such as dance, film and theatre-making to get people talking about heritage.
Starting the festival is Hinterland. Written by Duncan Buwalda and directed by Caroline Smart, it is a play about an imagined meeting between Sol Plaatje (Sia Sikawuti) and Cecil John Rhodes (David Dukas). The cast is rounded out by Greg Parvess and Frank Graham. The play started last week and runs until Thursday.
Then, up next is a double bill of Secret Ballot and Poet.O.Type, both directed by J Bobs Tshabalala, which runs from September 6 to 13.
Secret Ballot is a political satire following the exploits of five tenderpreneurs and businessmen, and explores the concept of voting and just how secret it really is.
Poet.O.Type is spoken word drama scrutinising the relationship between two poets, the student and the teacher.
Also working as a double bill is Born Around Here and The Rabble, running from September 16 to 23.
Born Around Here is a production by The Company@ Maitisong from Botswana. Devised by the cast and University of Botswana Visual and Performing Arts students, it highlights how Botswana and Zambia contributed to the South African struggle for freedom. By concentrating on the experience of a South African refugee who sought a safe haven in Botswana, the play looks at how the presence of political refugees in other countries posed a danger to the people of the host country.
The Rabble, using physical language, masks, imagery and sound design, is the story of people who live underground, under what used to be District 6. The two vagrants (played by Iman Isaacs and Richard September) are viewed as the rabble, indivisible from the neglected debris that forms their landscape. When they find an abandoned baby, the child brings them a sense of purpose, but this will only last as long as they can keep it safe.
On Heritage Day, September 24, Mbothwe directs his mass dance musical, 1976 Spirits. Drawing on dancers from CAPA, Indoni Dance Company, Jazzart and Sibonelo Dance Project plus Mamela Nyamza, the piece supposes that the dancers are schoolchildren from 1976 who have been awoken in the now and will tell the story of what happened then.
Also on September 24, at noon, Artscape will host a screening of Nadine Cloete’s documentary Action Kommandant, the story of Ashley Kriel.
“In Cape Town, we don’t tell stories that originate from Cape Town and I thought, Ashley Kriel, we don’t know about that young, courageous person.
“We talk about 1976 and we only look at Soweto, but as Artscape we are saying so much took place in the Western Cape and we need to start proclaiming those narratives.”
On September 29 at 4pm, the last production will be The Making of the Criminal, a joint production between inmates of the Goodwood Correctional Services and Pollsmoor Correctional Services.
“Heritage is complex. It is big. These are the things we have inherited as a community, as a people of South Africa. We are conscious that we have to consider the multiplicity of storytelling, on all levels of society,” said Mbothwe.